An Introduction to Indian Philosophy

Abstract

This book attempts an overview of some of the topics, themes and arguments with which Brahminical Hindu and Buddhist Indian philosophers were concerned between the second and twelfth centuries A.D. It seeks to describe a variety of very different world-views. It aims to explore a variety of different mentalities, rather than to evaluate them or to ask whether they are true. It begins with some general considerations about the background to the different philosophical schools and tries to explain the origins of the fundamental separation of mentalities into the enduring-substance ontologies propounded by Brahmins and the event ontologies, repudiating real permanent identities formulated by the Buddhists.